The Teacher, The Student
by ThatGuyRex
Summary: The crew of the Andromeda, and especially Trance, find more than they have bargained for when they take a mysterious young woman onboard.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** This is only my second attempt at Andromeda fanfiction, and my first ever fic heavily involving a made-up character. I only started it because I got smacked with Writer's Block on my other fic and this idea was screaming for me to start. Please don't kill me. Let me know how I'm doing in my reviews, I promise I'll listen to you. 

TITLE: The Teacher, The Student  
AUTHOR: LadyBianca  
RATING: PG-13  
SPOILERS: Anything up to Season 4, plus possible Trance spoilers through Season 5.  
DISCLAIMER: No profits have been made, nor money exchanged. The only character I thought of myself is Calliope, and I didn't even make up her name. I'm inventing a lot of details about Trance as well, since they leave so much up to the imagination.  
ARCHIVE: You're welcome to archive, as long as you let me know that you have.  
SUMMARY: The crew of the Andromeda, and especially Trance, find more than they have bargained for when they take a mysterious young woman onboard.

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_"Come to the edge  
He said.  
They said: We are afraid.  
Come to the edge  
He said.  
They came.  
He pushed them,  
and they flew..."_

_-Guillaume Apollinaire  
20th Century Earth Poet_

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"Captain, I'm picking up a small vessel. It appears to be on an intercept course. It is broadcasting a generic distress signal."  
The upper half of the avatar of the Andromeda Ascendant appears on the monitor in front of Dylan. The viewscreen then splits to show a representation of the Andromeda, and another small dot to represent the other vessel, a short distance away.

"Can you tell me where it came from, Andromeda?" Dylan slides out of his seat and approaches the screen.

"Just what I wanted for today." Beka mutters, from her seat behind him. "More adventure." As she leans back in her chair, Dylan turns his head, giving her a look. Beka's face immediately assumes an expression of innocence. "What?" She asks, raising her hands in a mock defense.

Dylan opens his mouth to reply, but as soon as he draws breath, the voice of the Andromeda cuts him off. "I cannot discern its origin."

"There is one life sign aboard." Trance breaks in, softly.

Dylan's hands move to his hips. A small smile forms on his lips as he looks back at Beka. "Let's bring her in."

"Dylan," A note of urgency in Trance's voice brings Dylan's attention to her. "The life sign is erratic. I think they're... dying." Dylan is struck by the feeling in the young woman's eyes. His most mysterious crewmember always seemed to be the most empathetic, as well.

"All the more reason for us to hurry, Trance." He replies, as the crew busies themselves with bringing the small ship into the dock.

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Everything hurts.

The petite, redheaded girl slumps into the chair, tapping a sequence of codes into the control panel. The command deck is small, and very utilitarian. The deck is a pale grey, and the bulkheads are a slightly lighter shade. The overhead is the same colour as the bulkheads, but it also has a darker grey speckled over it. The girl looks up at the overhead. Usually, it is something she finds quite beautiful, but right now it is only making her nauseous. She pushes a sweaty lock of hair from her face as she hears the beep of the ship's computer, acknowledging that her distress sequence is being repeated.

"Please, come on..." She mutters, scanning her viewscreen for any sign of the help she desperately needs. She leans her head into the backrest of the chair, closing her eyes. A low buzzing starts up in her ears. "Please... please..." She repeats her appeal until it merely sounds like gibberish. Finally, the computer signals her with a beep, and she opes her eyes. The viewscreen wavers in and out of her vision, but she can still make out what is shown upon it.

"A ship." She breathes, and a tiny smile manages to steal onto her lips as the world around her goes dark.

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As soon as Andromeda can assure them that there is only one life sign, and that the life sign is quite incapacitated, Dylan, Trance and Rommie board the tiny ship.

"This is little more than an escape pod, really." Rommie mutters, as the trio enter the rear of the ship. What appears to be a tiny storage area is completely empty.

"Please, Dylan, we have to hurry." Trance implores, moving to the doorway. The captain had advised caution, but the golden woman is brimming with impatience.

As she steps through the doorway onto the main deck, she spies the girl slumped on the ground in front of the command chair. She quickly moves to the girl's side and feels around her neck. "Her pulse is thready and erratic." She looks behind her, where Rommie and Dylan are standing. "We need to get her to Med Deck."

As Dylan steps closer, glancing around the meager command area, the girl stirs slightly. "She can't be more than seventeen. Where did she come from? We should send a message out, see if we can find her homeworld." Before he even finishes the sentence, the girl's eyes open, wide.

"No!" The girl chokes out, hoarsely. "Don't tell anyone I'm here. I have no home." Breathing heavily, eyes wild, the girl looks at the two gathered around her for a moment. Then, as if the effort was too much, her form goes limp as she lapses into unconsciousness.

"Dylan," Rommie's voice calls from over at the command console. "There is absolutely nothing in this ship's database. No logs, no history. No information at all."

Dylan straightens up, and his gaze moves from Rommie to Trance, who is still kneeling beside the crumpled form of the young woman. "A mysterious girl with no past and no home. Sounds like it's right up your alley, Trance."

Trance merely looks back at him with one of her inscrutable expressions. "Med deck." She says, simply.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** Redraf Karive, my one and only reviewer. Thank you. :-) This next chapter is for you. 

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Sensations begin to return to the girl, slowly. First, she becomes aware that she is lying down. Gradually, noises reach her ears: equipment humming, low conversations, people walking. She is unaware of how much time passes, but eventually, her eyes open, squinting against the half-light of the compartment. She moves her gaze around the dim room, wonderingly, until her attention lands on a woman standing nearby. She watches the woman punch away at a console. Still a little disoriented, the girl takes little notice of the woman's golden-hued skin and long auburn dreadlocks.

Trance pores over more scans on the computer screen, thinking about the girl they had picked up. The girl who was lying here, unconscious and in mortal danger. No one knew anything about her, least of all her name, so Harper had nicknamed her 'Little Orphan Annie'. Trance smiles, softly, as she recalls how Harper had then had to explain the reference to everyone. Numerous times. The smile fades as quickly as it appears, and is replaced by a hint of concern. Trance can't quite figure out why, but she knows that this adolescent young woman has to live. She isn't even sure if the perfect possible future depends on it - but she feels a driving insistance that this girl must pull through.

Hearing a small sound to her left, Trance turns to see a pair of slate grey eyes looking back at her. Slightly startled, she steps close to the small bed. The girl tries to sit up at her approach, but Trance holds out an arm, to stop her.

"No, no... don't sit up. You need to save your strength." Trance instructs the girl, gently. "You've been infected with some kind of biological weapon, as far as I can figure." Trance watches the girl's face. The girl nods, seeming to accept it quickly. There is no surprise in her eyes. Trance wonders if this was something the girl already knew.

"Oddly, it appears that the infectant was engineered specifically for you. It's very, very potent in your system, but it will only pass through anyone else." Trance continues. Again the girl nods, and she licks her lips. Drawing a breath, she speaks in a hoarse voice.

"It's a punishment." The girl rasps. A small, sardonic smile flickers in the corner of her mouth, briefly, and then it is gone. "I was supposed to die."

Trance gazes into the girl's grey eyes, a solemn expression on her face. "You still could." She says softly, as gently as she can. "Nothing I have come up with seems to have any effect on the virus."

The girl's eyes harden, and her flushed cheeks darken even more. "It won't kill me, if I can help it." She states, but the firmness of her declaration is weakened as she breaks into a fit of coughing.

"Sleep now, Annie. Save your strength for fighting this." Trance replies, trying to offer the ill girl a smile. Inadvertantly, she slips into using the name the whole crew had come to refer to the patient as, not knowing what she was really called.

A frown crosses the girl's face. "Annie? Where did you get that?" She asks, though her voice is quickly losing steam. "S'close, though... call me Callie."

"Callie, then. Now get some sleep." Trance urges her, and the girl falls back into slumber quickly.

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After several hours of punching keys on the console and looking at endless readouts, Trance leans back in her chair. "That's it." She mutters to herself. "What can you use to fight a virus that is engineered specifically to kill one person?" She gives a frustrated sigh, closing her eyes.

_When the battle takes place inside, you must fight it inside._ The thought comes to her, and her eyes pop open. "That's it!" She repeats, new energy flowing into her. "When science and technology fail, turn to the human body's own psychological power to heal itself."

Trance's animated declaration awakens Callie. The girl raises her head, though she looks obviously worse for wear. "Did you figure it out?" She asks, hoarsely.

Trance shakes her head, a frown of regret on her lips. "Nothing from the computers... but I want you to try something with me, okay?" She moves to the bedside, and takes the girl's hands in her own.

"I want you to close your eyes, and imagine the energy that makes up your life force. I'll do it with you. Your energy is weak, but it's still there, still fighting. Imagine it growing larger." Trance begins instructing in a low, calm voice. "I'm here with you. My life is strong. Borrow my strength to make you stronger."

As soon as Trance finishes this phrase, Callie's body tenses. A small glow spreads around Trance's hands, and spreads to envelope first Callie's arms, and then her whole body. As the glow dissipates, the girl's eyes open. An expression of wonder rises on her face. "I... feel a bit better."

Trance can only stare at the girl, in shock. She had seen it. She had felt it. It was impossible, but it had happened all the same. Somehow, she had been able to boost Callie with her own energy, not unlike the way a car could boost off of another car's battery.

"I've never been able to do that with someone who wasn't... _like me_ before." Trance finally breaks the silence, still looking at Callie, uncomprehendingly. Callie catches a bit of the implication of this, and only gazes back, solemnly.

"Andromeda, engage privacy mode." She calls, to the computer. Trance folds her arms, and turns to Callie, chewing slightly on her bottom lip. "We need to talk."


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Thank you, reviewers. I hope I can continue to keep this story in-character, and enjoyable. This chapter is a bit of filler/background information, but don't worry, there'll be more action, and the rest of the crew will enter into it soon.

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Continuing to stare at the girl, Trance holds her position for a moment, trying to make sense of what she has just seen and experienced.

On previous occasions, she had been able to lend a tiny amount of her strength to an organic being, but it was just a minute amount, something that would give little more than a small, temporary boost of energy. In these times, she had been able to see right down into the being's core, to view their life force. With a soft nudge from Trance's influence, the soft, deep blue life force would re-awaken into flowing, frothy waves.

When Trance had looked deep into Callie's core, she saw nothing. Only a dull, empty space. Frightened and repelled by this thing that should not be, Trance had nudged harder then was necessary, and the dark space erupted into a ball of flame, a small supernova of internal potential. A core not unlike her very own.

Now, with privacy mode engaged, Trance steps back and considers the girl for a time. Callie watches the golden woman, curiousity mixing with the solemn expression in her grey eyes. The woman seems to be in deep concentration, or thinking of something very serious. Callie takes a deep breath, and then ventures to speak, hesitantly.

"What did you do to me?" She asks, and then a blush darkens her cheeks as her own brash tone echoes in her ears. "I.. I mean, just now."

Trance's eyes finally focus outwards again, and her expression is sober as her eyes rest on Callie. "I don't know." She answers, honestly.

Callie stares back at the woman, folding her arms across her chest. The older woman's reaction is puzzling, and now that her energy has at least partially returned, her curiousity is returning along with it. "I think you saved me." She finally adds, chancing a small smile.

Trance returns the smile, though the expression in her eyes is still troubled. "Perhaps." She answers, and then she quickly pulls up a stool so that she can sit at Callie's bedside. "Callie, can I ask you some questions? About where you came from?"

Callie merely nods, her eyes slowly darkening with a grim expression. "I'll answer as many as I can." An introspective quality seems to come over Callie, and her gaze lowers to her lap. "I owe you that much."

Trance nods slowly, clasping her hands in her lap. "Well..." She draws out. "We could start with your name. It's got to be longer than just 'Callie'."

The girl's eyes rise back up to meet Trance's gaze, and a tiny smile begins to play about her lips. The tension that had gathered eases slightly, and Callie takes a breath. "Calliope Caractacus Ochiern."

Trance smiles, a soft, gentle expression, and she holds her hand out for Callie to shake. "Trance Gemini." She returns her hands to their position in her lap, and the smile fades a little as she looks at the girl again. "Where did you come from? And why did they try to kill you?" She asks, her tone still soft and gentle, but there is an underlying tension building up again.

Callie doesn't speak for a moment. Her gaze remains steadily directed into the bed below her. Finally, the girl raises her head, and the regret and pain in her eyes makes Trance wish she hadn't questioned the girl so sharply. "I came from a ship." Callie replies, after a moment. Her voice sounds suddenly older than her years. "It's called the Aulus Tacitus. Don't ask me about any locations or planets, I've never been on one before. My whole community lives on the ship. It lands to pick up supplies and fuel, but we're forbidden to visit the planets. We're wanderers. We live out our whole lives on the ship, with only the people of the community. No outside influence." A small twist of her mouth adds a sardonic note to her voice. "I've never met anyone new before."

Trance leans forward, as an expression of curiousity spreads across her face. She looks at the girl as if she is seeing her in a new light. "You certainly took it in stride when you woke up in a new place with none of your people."

Calliope crosses her arms, looking at Trance with her eyebrows raised. "_My_ people tried to kill me, remember?" She says, a little heatedly, but in the next instant she seems to sink downwards, becoming an adolescent girl again. She breaks her gaze and looks down at the floor. Her auburn curls, all tangled, fall around her face. "I was different, all my life. Always questioning. Everyone around me seemed to accept their lives for the way they were, but I was never content with that. I knew there were larger things out there, and I wanted to be a part of them." A heavy sigh lifts her thin shoulders. Her words grow soft, but there is an intensity in her voice that grows as she speaks. "At first, they gave me time to change. Said I would grow out of it. But the older I got, the _more_ I wanted."

Calliope swipes at her hair angrily, brushing it away from her face. "I couldn't leave well enough alone. I had to ask questions. I had to disagree." She continues, drawing a ragged breath. "A few of the younger ones looked up to me. They were starting to emulate my differences. It was causing trouble for the whole community." Finally, Callie raises her head, and her stone coloured eyes are filled with tears. The anger inside them, the raw power of her gaze shocks Trance, and she only listens, mutely.

"One morning, instead of going to the learning centre for my morning activities, they called me to the Council Building. There, they told me that the previous evening, one of the young ones had taken my imaginings of exploration to heart, and had wandered where he shouldn't have. He made it into the access hallways, and found a service conduit that had been left open for repairs. The electrical discharge that occured after he touched it killed him, and shorted out power to a third of the community. For the incident that stemmed from my behaviour, I was sentenced to be Excluded. It is the harshest punishment of our community. I was injected with a virus specifically engineered to kill me, without harming anyone else. Then, I was ostracized to a specific part of the city meant for those like myself to live out their last, disgraced days."

Callie wipes her eyes, an irritated motion, and continues in a steadier tone, though the cold edge of anger is still present. "I apparently had more ingenuity, and more guts than even the leaders of my community. It wasn't hard to escape from the habitation area and escape in a pod. And so I ended up here." The girl watches Trance for a moment, as if gauging her reaction. "What I don't understand is, the virus was supposed to be irreversible. Once activated, it infiltrates the victim, almost becomes part of them. Somehow, you got rid of it."

Trance finally leans forward, places a slim hand over the girl's clenched fist. "I'm sorry for what happened to you, Calliope. We don't always choose our beginnings, but when it comes to the end, there is always a choice." The girl's eyes burn into Trance's, as if she is seeking something, but she nods slowly, as if accepting the golden woman's words. Trance rises to her feet, dimming the lights in the room. "You try and get some rest. In a few hours, you can come meet some more people. We need to figure out where we're going to put you."

When the girl is relaxed again, Trance turns, and leaves med deck. She knows just who she needs to talk to, now.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Sorry about the long hiatus. My time's been pretty limited lately, but I really want to develop this story the way I imagined. I hope there's still some old readers left, and welcome to the new readers! Let me know how I'm doing in a review - I'll listen, I promise! 

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Trance steps into the passageway, effectively disengaging the privacy mode in the compartment she had just left. She makes it a few feet in the direction of the command deck before the hologram form of Andromeda blinks on directly in front of her.

"Andromeda." Trance says calmly, with a nod. She tries to sidestep the hologram and continue on, but it just re-materializes again in front of her.

"Trance - " The hologram looks steadily at the golden woman as she speaks. Holo-Andromeda's arms are folded and a slight disapproving frown turns down the corner of her lips. "The internal temperature of that girl in there has more than tripled from its' original number. And she had a fever to begin with. What happened?"

"It's not 'that girl', her name is Callie." Trance replies, and tries again to sidestep the hologram and carry on. Again, the hologram re-projects in front of her.

"Trance, by all reason, she shouldn't be alive." Holo-Andromeda says, and the disapproving expression is replicated in her voice.

"Maybe she's not alive." Trance replies, nonchalantly, but then she gives the hologram a searching look. "Look, Andromeda - I'll explain everything, to everyone... but I have to talk to Dylan first."

The hologram purses her lips. "I'll let him know you're coming. He'll meet you in the briefing room off of the bridge."

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Trance quickly explains how Calliope had come to be critically ill and all alone in a tiny ship. Dylan seems to take it in stride, and he leans forward, his fingers templed. A slight smile comes to his face as he watches Trance explain. She seems a little worried to him, but he thinks he can put that to rest. "Something tells me that a new little runaway is about to join our merry band of adventurers."

"At least until she finds a place that she can call home." Trance answers, but the worried frown doesn't disappear. Dylan wonders what else it could be. For a moment, he contemplates letting her work it out on her own, and come to him if she really wants his help, but something makes him ask, this time.

"She's welcome on the ship for as long as she needs, Trance. What's bothering you?"

The golden woman keeps her gaze on the table seperating them, and her cheeks darken with a blush. "There's something else about the girl." She says, looking very uncomfortable. "I don't know how to explain it, I don't even understand it, really... it should have been impossible. I made a really big mistake." Dylan remains silent as he waits for her to explain further, and Trance's eyes finally rise from the table to his face.

"I think she's like me, Dylan. I mean, not like me, but kind of. She isn't supposed to be like me, but now I think she might be, a little." Trance says, and her words come out in a rush.

This is a bigger surprise than he expected, and Dylan is more than a little unsettled by how disturbed the usually complacent golden woman seems to be. He raises his hands. "Whoa. Slow down a minute. Can you explain that a little clearer?"

Trance seems to make an effort to slow herself down and choose her words carefully. After a brief, collecting moment, she tries again. "I tried to save her life, she was dying. In doing so, I think part of what I am took hold inside of her. It should never have happened, it's impossible... but she was different, to begin with. An impossibility of her own."

"You know, Trance - sometimes I've thought that having more than one of you around might be a good thing." Dylan tries for a light tone at first, but when this doesn't seem to diminish the golden woman's apprehension, he becomes serious again. "What will this mean for her? She's still just a young woman, isn't she?"

"I'm not sure, Dylan." Trance replies, softly. "I don't know what's going to happen - but it doesn't feel right."

Dylan reaches across the table to put one of his hands over hers. "We'll take it a day at a time, Trance. It's all we can do." He says, before standing and moving around to her side of the table. "Do you think she's well enough to meet the crew, yet?"

"She's unused to meeting new people, but she seems to take it in stride." Trance answers, a slight note of discomfort still accompanying her voice, but she moves with Dylan to the door. "She needs to rest, now, but I believe she might be up to it tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow it is, then." He says, evenly, as they move through the doorway.


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Thanks, benesound. It's great to see I've got you wondering about Calliope. But I'm not telling exactly, yet. :-P This chapter's for you - thanks for letting me know how I'm doing. And just a note to everyone that her name is pronounced "kahl-EYE-oh-pee". In case you wanted to know. :-)

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In the dim light of the medical bay, Calliope lies on the narrow bed, her gaze on the ceiling. She knows that she is supposed to sleep, but it's hard. So much is nagging at her, right now. She closes her eyes, and an image of the elder of her community comes unbidden to her mind. She never really fit, there. She made herself fit, but had always felt like a square peg in a round hole. Like a spring wound too tightly.

When she had been exiled and left to die, she had almost welcomed it. Finally, an end - the only end she could see herself coming to. But that was just it: she had **almost** welcomed it. Even beaten down and left in the cold, there was something inside her that had told her to live. Something that told her that the life she had always wanted was ripe for the taking.

And so, she stole the ship. She let her instincts choose the direction she fled. Somehow she ended up escaping, and just as she was about to run out of strength, she was picked up by the Andromeda.

Now, she finds herself different again. Something that golden woman had done has changed her. No, not changed her, really... added to her. And tomorrow, she will meet the crew. Trance's friends. Calliope draws a deep breath. Meeting new people is something completely different from the life she has known, but somehow the thought of it feels more natural than her whole childhood had.

It seems clear to Calliope that she will not be able to sleep, so she sits up against the pillow at the head of the bed, and wraps her arms around her knees. Gazing around the medical bay in the dim light, she squints to make out the outline of a viewscreen against the wall. For a second, the dimness seems to fall away and she can see the opposite wall just as well as she could have in full lighting. Startled, she blinks and her vision returns to normal. Before she has time to puzzle about it, though, the door hisses open.

"Trance?" Calliope calls, hesitantly.

"Uh, no." A feminine voice answers, and the form of a tall, blonde woman steps past the doorway and into the compartment. "But I was kind of looking for her. I forgot you were in here." The woman adds a somewhat hesitant smile as she finishes speaking.

"Are you sick?" Calliope watches this new woman with interest, her apprehension slowly draining away.

"I have a killer headache, but I think I can handle it myself, now that I'm here." The woman says, moving past the occupied bed to a countertop beyond. "Last time I ever help Harper, though." She adds, in a mutter. Seeming to find what she needs, the woman turns and then pauses. "It's good to see you awake. You looked pretty bad when they brought you in."

Callie isn't quite sure how to respond. She merely watches the woman as she fiddles at the counter, but at the last statement she smiles, a bit shyly. "Thanks."

"I'm Beka Valentine." The blonde woman says.

"Calliope." Callie responds, and then they are interrupted by the form of the Andromeda appearing on the viewscreen.

"Beka, you're not supposed to be disturbing the patient. I'll have to ask you to leave." And then the viewscreen flickers off again. Beka mutters something indistinct and begins to head for the door.

"You weren't disturbing me." Callie calls after her. Beka turns back to smile at the girl, and is struck by how much the complacent attitude of the young woman reminds her of Trance. She steps out the door, and Callie is once again alone in the compartment. She arranges herself under the blankets and returns to staring at the ceiling.

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Callie is awakened by light, forcing its way between the crack in her eyelids. She opens her eyes, and is greeted by the sterile walls of the medical bay under full illumination, and Trance standing before her with a pile of clothes in her arms.

"Morning." Trance greets her, but as Calliope tries to meet her eyes, Trance shifts her gaze away. The golden woman places the pile of clothing on the foot of the bed, and steps back.

"Your clothes, cleaned. Later on we can see if there's anything else on the ship in your size." Trance says. Calliope watches her, noticing how Trance surreptitiously seems to avoid a direct gaze. "You should get dressed. I'll give you ten minutes, and then I'm going to take you around the ship, ok?" The golden woman smiles, and is out the door.

Ten minutes later, Callie is dressed and being led around the ship. So far she has met too many people to remember every name, but as Trance leads her into the hangar where the Maru is docked, Callie recognizes one of the people standing near the door of the ship. "This is Beka Valentine, our pilot and Captain of this ship, the Eureka Maru." Trance introduces. Callie gives the blonde woman a shy smile, and Trance indicates the short man standing with Beka.

"And this is Seamus Harper, our resident engineer."

"Resident _Genius_ Engineer, actually." Harper adds, with a little bow.

"This is Calliope." Trance finishes the introductions, and Harper's eyes light up.

"The Greek muse of epic poetry." He interjects. Beka raises an eyebrow at him. "What? I'm more than just a grease monkey, you know." Beka's eyebrows raise further, and Harper shakes his head. "Never mind. Must be an Earth thing." He mumbles, and then looks back up at Callie. "Nice to meetcha." The tour continues, and Calliope tries hard to remember where things are and who she has met. Soon, she finds herself viewing the bridge and standing before a tall, blue eyed man.

"Hello, Dylan." Calliope looks up into the blue eyes with a smile, but her expression fades into uncertainty and she takes a step backwards. "I - I'm sorry... um... you're Captain Hunt, I suppose." A blush rises on her cheeks and she looks to Trance, who seems to be studying her more closely. "I could have sworn I know you... but I can't have." A bewildered tone enters her voice, but Dylan remains composed, a gentle smile on his lips.

"Welcome to Andromeda, Calliope. You're free to stay, until you find the place you'd like to settle." He says, holding out his hand for her to shake.

"Thank you, Captain." She says, taking his hand.

"Call me Dylan." He says, with a grin. "Or, keep calling me Dylan, I guess."

Trance seems to sense the girl's discomfort. "Dylan, with your permission, I'm going to take Callie and get her established in crew quarters."

"Of course, Trance." Dylan replies, and Trance takes Callie by the shoulder and directs her back into the hallways of the Andromeda.

"You can sense things now, can't you? You can remember people you've never met, you can feel where certain things are?" Trance speaks to Calliope softly as they walk.

"I knew Dylan before I even met him, I know I did. I felt close to him, like a friend - like a confidante. But I've never seen him before in my life."

"You knew Beka too, didn't you?"

Calliope's tone turns sheepish as she answers. "Well, I met Beka last night, she came to med deck with a headache."

Trance purses her lips and is silent for a while, until they near the crew quarters and what will be Calliope's assigned compartment. "Callie - will you meet with me tomorrow? I want to run one more test on you. It won't be dangerous, I promise."

Callie turns to Trance, but the golden woman still won't meet her with a direct gaze. She nods. "All right."


	6. Chapter 6

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The quarters that have been assigned to Calliope are small, comfortable but utilitarian. Not unlike the way her own people kept things. She dims the lights and settles herself into a chair at the desk as she tries to match faces with all the names she had learned today. One face keeps surfacing in her mind. Blue eyes. Dylan Hunt. Even remembering his name evokes a feeling of familiarity in her, but at the same time, the feeling scares her.

How should she be able to recognize him so easily? She had never met him before in her life, never met anyone before in her life - but still, she feels like she's known Dylan for a long time. What had happened to her when Trance tried to help her? She had known that she was dying, she could feel her body failing... but when Trance took her hands and implored that she feel herself live, something had happened. One moment she could feel her life hanging by a thread, the next moment she felt an energy like she had never known. And something different. Something unawakened. Something she can feel right at this moment, hovering on the edge of her being.

Something that makes it impossible to sleep. She is too nervous. She rises to her feet and moves for the door. She can't just sit in her room all night - she thinks she can remember a mess hall of sorts, somewhere on the ship. She'll find it.

The passageways all look the same, and as Calliope moves down one, and then another, she eventually has to admit to herself that she is completely lost. She pauses in the middle of the passage, and turns to look back the way she came. At least, she thinks that's the way she came.

"Fancy meeting you here." The voice comes from behind her, and Calliope turns her head to look. The blonde woman. She closes her eyes and the name surfaces.

"Beka." Calliope turns to face the other woman. "Hi."

"No armed guard? They'll let you wander on your own, now?" Beka's words come with a light tone, but Callie isn't quite sure how to take them. She drops her gaze.

"Actually, I was just looking for a place to eat. I thought I saw a mess hall or something on the grand tour, but now I think I'm lost."

Beka's face spreads into a smile, and she moves one step to the left. The door next to them slides open, revealing the mess hall. "You mean this one?"

Callie's look of surprise changes into a small smile, and she turns from the door to Beka. "Uh... yeah."

"Guess you weren't as lost as you thought. Come on." Beka leads the young woman into the mess hall and soon they are seated at a table. "So." Beka leans back in her chair and folds her arms. "How are you finding your stay aboard the Andromeda?"

"It's... comfortable." Calliope replies.

Beka's expression turns to an almost-smirk. Calliope gets the feeling of sarcasm from her, but without ill-intention. Almost like the blonde woman is a little jaded. She has trouble feeling an honest connection with her, as if the other woman is speaking from behind a mask. "Trance said you say your people stay very secluded, they keep to their own. All these changes must be really big, for you." Beka continues.

"I think I like change." Calliope's smile grows into a grin.

Beka's expression mirrors the young woman's. "Good girl." She says. "So about you: How old are you, what's your favourite colour, did you leave some man pining away when you left? All that stuff."

Calliope blanches a little at the directness of the questions, but she collects herself quickly. "I'm 20 standard years old. My favourite colour is blue, and no, I don't believe anyone is pining away for me right now." She answers, somewhat stiffly.

"20, huh? You look younger." Beka takes note of the sudden return of Calliope's reserved manner, and finally, the mask seems to slip. A hint of apology, real apology, comes into her eyes. "Hey, I'm sorry. You don't have to answer anything you don't want to." The girl seems to be staring at the countertop, sullenly. Beka takes a deep breath, mentally cursing herself for screwing up yet another first impression.

"I grew up on a ship, too. It wasn't quite like yours, I was allowed to meet people and visit planets, but I still like space better. Wait until you see your first planet. Weather - rain, snow, sun. It's really wild." Beka continues, trying to elicit a reaction from Calliope. The girl finally looks back up at Beka.

"20 years is the age of adulthood in my people. If I hadn't been banished, I would have been assigned to a useful place in my community. My favourite colour is blue, more specifically a light shade of blue somewhere between navy and ultramarine. I was nothing more than a bother to my community, and now that I've stolen a ship and gotten out of their hair, I believe they'll be glad I'm gone."

"Hey, hey." Beka reaches across the table to put her hand across Calliope's. "It's a lot to get used to, but you're welcome here. Don't worry. Everything will be fine." Beka's smile brings a smile from the young woman as well. Calliope looks at Beka, but her full attention isn't focused outward. That unawakened power inside of her feels like it has begun to stir. 

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"How are you feeling?" The golden woman sits across from Calliope, questioning her. Trance still seems to be studiously avoiding a direct gaze.

"All right." Calliope replies, although this isn't quite true. Since last evening in the mess hall, she has felt wrong. Something, growing in power, is trying to take hold of her, and she's not quite sure if she wants to let it. It has put her continuously on edge, and she feels exhausted.

"Feeling healthy again? The way you did before you left your people?" Trance's tone turns probing.

"Yes... No." Calliope begins to evade again, but instead the truth breaks loose. "I feel... more alive than I did before. I feel powerful, but at the same time I feel like it's out of my control." The girl sighs deeply, and tries to catch Trance's eyes. "I feel like a pot about to boil over."

Trance nods, though her expression is carefully neutral. "And you've felt this way since when?"

"Since you tried to heal me." Calliope responds, a touch of irritation entering her voice. Her temper flares much more quickly than she is used to, and it, too seems out of her control. "You did this to me. It's your fault."

These words seem to startle Trance, and her eyes swing to meet Callie's gaze before Trance can stop herself. As soon as their eyes have met, Trance can't break the gaze.

The eye contact seems to crumble a wall inside Calliope, and the power inside her rises to the surface before she can stop it. The air around her seems to shimmer. "What did you do to me?" She shouts at Trance as the searing heat spreads to her head.

Trance watches the young woman in horror as a brilliant flame erupts behind the girl's eyes, before they roll up in her head and she crumbles to the ground.


	7. Chapter 7

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_A blistering heat envelops Calliope as the world turns white-hot around her. She can't move, she can barely think. She tries to close her eyes against the radiance but it burns through her eyelids. Her mind erupts into stars as all-consuming potential rises up inside of her. She rides the current until slowly she can feel her faculties gain a claw-hold, and she draws on that. Finally gaining solid footing over the excruciating flow of brilliance, she begins to fight it in earnest._

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Trance and Dylan stand over the pallid figure of the girl on the bed. She lies alarmingly still, without a movement to register that she lives, save for the shallow rise and fall of her chest.

"Her core body temperature is fluctuating rapidly." The voice of Andromeda reports.

"What's happening to her, Trance?" Dylan asks. His eyes do not raise from the young woman on the bed.

"She's fighting it." Trance replies softly. The sadness in her tone brings Dylan's eyes back up to her face. Dylan is troubled to see a tear in the corner of Trance's eye.

"Fighting what?"

Trance doesn't reply right away, but her silence is charged with guilt. When she finally does speak her voice has a low, unsteady quality. "They always said that avatars were born, not made. They were wrong. Avatars can be made. They just can't live. It's impossible."

Dylan watches the golden woman as she speaks, his forehead knotted in his quest to understand. "And when you healed her, you..."

"I caused all this." Trance's voice trembles, but she continues. "I accidentally released a part of what I am while I was trying to help her. Now it's fighting her. Unless she surrenders to it, she'll die.

"You've seen this before?"

Another long silence stretches while Trance watches the young woman on the bed. She takes a deep breath. "Yes. I wasn't directly involved. One of my people tried it on purpose. The life force in a human body isn't compatible with ours. The natural response for the original life force is to resist. Eventually, the new life force will conquer it and consume the body. All the while causing excruciating pain. It's horrible, Dylan - and I've done this to her."

"There's nothing we can do for her?" Dylan asks, a small note of hope in his voice.

Trance recognizes his eternal optimism, hating herself all the more for having to crush it. "I could give her something for the fever, but I doubt that it would have much effect. It would take great strength to come through this - the only way to survive would be to hang on to her own self but allow the new life force to blend with her own and add to her. The human psyche is so fragile. I'm not sure it could manage that."

"If she's going to suffer, do you think we should... help her to her end?"

It pains Trance to see her captain look so helpless, but somehow the thought of ending the girl's life feels worse. "Euthanasia? No, Dylan. I can't do that."

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_Calliope holds firm, trying to keep a grip on her sentience. Bright fragments whip around her, lacerating her arms and legs. Fingers of white light pry into her mind, questing. She struggles to close herself to the all-encompassing glow. She tries to gather her awareness, but she can feel it slipping, spreading, falling to the sea of effulgence. She envisions a rock. She curls herself into a ball and holds on to that picture of the rock, imagines herself as that rock. It gives her a fingerhold, and she can feel her self-awareness growing stronger. She feels the light surge up around her again, but this time she opens herself up. It pours itself into her, and suddenly the maelstrom of swirling sharp luminescence ceases. She can feel herself again, floating gently in the tide of light. Slowly, she becomes aware that the light is coming from her, part of her. She drifts amongst it, luxuriating in the sudden end of her battle. Time ceases to have meaning. A blink of an eye becomes aeons, until finally she remembers the ones she knew. Her friends. Leisurely, she opens herself again and draws the light back inside of her, until she is floating in the dark. Then, she closes her eyes. Sounds begin to reach her ears, and she moves towards them._

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"Trance, you haven't moved for hours. I can watch her just as well as you can. Go have a rest." Rommie touches Trance's elbow, startling her from her thoughts. The golden woman turns from the bed to the android.

"No... no. I'm fine." Trance answers, in a thin voice.

Rommie places her hands on her hips, giving Trance a searching look. "Trance, this was an accident. You won't do any good by beating yourself up."

"I want to stay, Rommie. Until the end." Trance sighs heavily. "I owe her that much."

Rommie nods in response, and takes a seat next to the golden woman. "Then I'll wait with you."

"Thank you." Trance replies, her voice not much more than a whisper. Hours pass as the two women continue their silent vigil. Trance's thoughts linger on the girl. How could she have not seen this coming? And why couldn't she find another path, some way to spare herself from this present? Was she supposed to learn something from the sacrifice of this girl that would eventually lead her to the perfect possible future?

"Trance..." Rommie's voice has a note of warning in it that focuses Trance's attention outwards again. What she sees causes her to rise to her feet in shock.

Calliope's eyes are open.


	8. Chapter 8

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_Something is wrong._ Calliope's eyes open, very slowly. Images assault her eyes, but nothing makes sense. She can see the walls of the medical bay, and Trance and Rommie not too far away from her bed, but their outlines are sharper, harder. Rommie steps forward, but the movement is so slow. She can see Trance's head begin to turn towards her, the muscles bunch and begin to work at the base of her neck, but the golden woman's head moves only a fraction of an inch as Callie watches.

Calliope feels her heart speed up as everything around her seems to slow even further. Her eyes dart around the almost deathly-still compartment. Her breathing shortens and becomes shallow. She feels as if she is accelerating with every passing second, leaving her surroundings behind. Rommie and Trance are no closer to her now than they were before. Imploringly, Calliope gazes into Trance's eyes, silently begging for help from the almost-still woman.

_Keep looking at me, Calliope._ Trance's voice echoes in the girl's mind. Calliope takes a deep breath and steadies herself.

_You have just undergone a major change. You no longer see the universe the same way, you cannot understand it yet. Hold on to me, and I'll bring you back._

Calliope feels an urge, a strong pull, to return to the light - to once again immerse herself in the sea of brilliance. It bubbles up inside of her again, and for a moment she teeters on the brink of losing herself.

_Hold on! _Trance's voice echoes in her mind, softly insistent. Calliope renews her focus on the golden woman, and gradually, everything around her returns to normal speed.

"Her vital signs have stabilized." Rommie reports, as Trance rises to her feet and steps toward the bed.

Calliope pulls herself into a sitting position and draws her knees to her chest, mentally taking inventory of her being. She can still feel the strange power within, but now it is contained - part of herself, instead of fighting herself. She raises her eyes to the two women, and a small, somewhat confused smile turns up her lips. "Um... hi."

Relief breaks across Trance's face and she can't help but let out a small smile as well. "Hi, yourself." She replies. "How do you feel?"

The girl seems to consider for a moment, before giving her answer. "Better."

"Um... great." Trance replies, a little flustered, though she can't keep a grin from spreading across her face. "If you'd feel more comfortable, you can go back to your quarters for the night - I'll walk you back, if you want."

Calliope slides off the bed into a standing position, and seems to test the ground with her feet for a moment, before looking back to Trance and Rommie. "All right." She replies.

"I'll go report to Dylan that Calliope is all right." Rommie says to the both of them as she steps into the passageway. Trance leads the girl out as well, and begins to walk her back to the crew quarters.

"You're sure you feel better?" Trance asks Callie softly as they walk.

"I think so." Comes the girl's musing answer. "I feel different, but before... it happened, I felt so out of control, like whatever you put in me was going to explode. It's still there, but it's not fighting me anymore." She explains, just as they reach her quarters.

Trance pauses outside and turns to the girl. "I can teach you how to control it, Calliope - so it will never fight you again. Will you meet with me tomorrow?"

Calliope looks at Trance, and nods. Trance smiles, and the girl turns to go into her quarters, but just as the doors open, she stops. "Trance... I'm sorry for what I said, before. I don't blame you. You saved my life."

Trance's smile softens, a sadder expression rising up beneath it. She squeezes the girl's shoulder, gently. "Don't worry about it, Calliope." The girl turns and ducks into her quarters. With a sigh, Trance turns and begins to head towards the bridge.


	9. Chapter 9

AN: Just a shortie 'cause it's been so long and I haven't had much time... thanks, if you're still reading. :-)

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Dylan is sitting at the desk in his quarters when the door hisses open. He raises his eyes, but is unsurprised to see who it is. He misreads the expression on her face, however. "It's over - she's gone?"

The golden woman pauses for a split second before shaking her head. Her voice comes out, sounding slightly startled in the small compartment. "No, Dylan. She's alive. She made it through."

Dylan brightens immediately. "That's... wonderful!" He replies, and a disbelieving chuckle escapes from his lips. He pauses, though, as Trance fails to respond. "Isn't it?"

Trance breaks his gaze for a moment. She takes a deep breath, seeming to steady herself. When her eyes return to his, he is surprised to see something there. Worry - no, more than worry. Fear. "She accepted the power inside of her, made it part of her. She is an avatar, now." She replies, softly.

"That doesn't seem like a bad thing, Trance. I've said it before - I wouldn't mind having more than one of you around." Dylan replies in a gentle tone. He feels a little more awkward dealing with a fearful Trance, but the golden woman always has the right things to say to put his mind at ease so he feels some obligation to at least try.

Trance's eyes swing back up to meet his. "She is an avatar without a celestial body, Dylan." She says. There is importance in her voice, but Dylan doesn't understand the seriousness of it. Trance sighs, and presses onward.

"An avatar without a celestial body to provide a balance in her power is a very dangerous thing. It's unnatural. Only a few have ever existed, and each one of them brought great destruction." A slightly more frantic note enters her tone and her eyes as she explains. "If my nebula were to find out that I had helped create such a thing..." She trails off, but the expression in her face more than explains what those consequences might be.

Dylan watches her with some concern. "Trance, you're shaking. Here, sit down." He guides the woman to a chair, and takes a seat next to her. "You've been at Callie's side for days. First, you thought you killed her, and you blamed yourself. Now you've saved her and you blame yourself. You haven't eaten or slept. Why don't you go rest for awhile? Rommie can watch her, and in the morning we'll figure out what we're going to do."

Trance tries to regulate her breathing. Finding it harder to do than usual, she looks at Dylan. Noting the concern in his eyes, she nods slowly. "I think rest would be a good idea." She stands, a little unsteadily. Dylan quickly gives her his arm, to help her regain her balance.

"I'll walk you back to your quarters." He says.

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On his way back to the bridge, Dylan pauses in front of one of the crew quarters. He thought about the girl inside - cast out of her home, left to die, suffered through illness and unthinkable torture. She was strong, no doubt - she was still alive. And now an avatar, to boot. Dylan recalls the conversation he had just had with the golden woman. He was still unnerved by the look he had seen in Trance's eyes as she spoke of Calliope.

Trance was afraid of her.

"But she's just a girl." Dylan mutters to himself, as he returns to the bridge.


	10. Chapter 10

AN: It's kind of nice to have writing time again. Any readers still out there?

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Calliope sits cross-legged on her bed. The lights are turned off, leaving her in the dark, but she doesn't mind. Calling on some resource within, she looks through eyes that can see the room as if it were fully lit. She knows that she should be sleeping. This was the time where most crewmembers slept, and she has to report to Trance in a few hours, but she doesn't feel the need for rest.

She can feel it inside of her. At her core, that ball of flame. It had become a part of her, she had allowed it in. She had surrendered to it, and now it was there - but even still, it feels foreign. Strangely, though she has been added to, she feels emptier, as if something is missing.

Already, she muses, already her life onboard the Aulus Tacitus seems distant. Like it was a story she had heard, long ago. Leaning back into her pillow, Callie amuses herself for a while by closing her eyes and feeling the energy flow inside of her.

_You have much power inside of you. You can do great things,_ a voice whispers from within her, _and terrible things._ Calliope smiles.

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At 0800 exactly, the door to med deck hisses open. As Trance turns to look, Calliope strides in. Trance quickly observes the way the girl walks, the colour in her cheeks. She appears healthy, quite a contrast to the fragile form that had occupied one of these beds just the day before. "Good morning, Callie." The golden woman offers, with a smile. Calliope returns the gesture and stands, hands clasped behind her back. "I'd like to start with a few quick medical tests, and then I want you to come with me to the hydroponics bay." Trance continues, and Calliope merely nods. She turns away to prepare some of the equipment.

Trance runs simple tests on the girl, recording her body temperature and scanning her physiology to see how much has been altered since her transformation. The girl sits quietly, seeming to be in thought, though she doesn't speak to Trance or even raise any questions about the tests she is performing.

Calliope sits on the examination table. Though her exterior is as still as a stone, inside her mind is racing.

_You have much power inside of you._ The voice whispers to her again. _You must make sure it does not go to waste._

_What do you mean?_ She asks the voice. _Trance will teach me how to use it._

_Do not listen to her. She will only give you limits, boundaries. Do not listen to her._ The voice replies, growing softly insistent. Calliope merely sits in silence, reeling in confusion and doubt. _Do not listen._ The voice echoes one more time, and then falls silent.

Trance finishes the exam, and steps back from the table, looking Callie over. "Well, I'm all done." She says, her voice sounding too loud in the silent compartment. "Shall we move on?" Calliope nods, and slides off of the table.

They walk for several minutes down the passageways towards the hydroponics bay. Trance keeps stealing sideways glances at the silent girl walking beside her. "You're being awfully quiet, Calliope." She says, once the silence becomes too much for her to bear. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Yes." The girl answers, simply. Inside, Calliope is torn. This power inside of her still feels foreign, uncontrolled. And it is speaking to her. Not only is it speaking to her, it is telling her exactly what she wants to hear. Part of her is afraid of the sway it could hold over her. She takes a breath, ready to tell Trance of her concern, and opens her mouth.

_Do not speak._ The voice freezes her jaw before she can begin. Her heart rate increases as she feels the cold fingers of a power she can't control reach its way up her spine. Still, she opens her mouth again, and speaks in a quavery, hesitant voice.

"Trance?..."

_DO NOT SPEAK!_ The voice thunders inside her, and a white hot pain blooms through her skull. She sways where she stands, and Trance turns to her in concern just quickly enough to catch her as she falls. Calliope closes her eyes against the pain. _I will not speak._ She tells the voice, as she whimpers inside of herself. She opens her eyes again to see Trance's face come into focus above her. Trance helps the girl into a sitting position.

"What happened, Callie? What is it?"

Calliope looks up at Trance for a moment, and Trance can see the warring emotions in the girl's eyes. Calliope takes a deep breath, and opens her mouth.

"Nothing." She replies.

_Good._


End file.
